7 OCT Ivy Red WB EVENING ON FRENCH TO ENGLISH POETRY TRANSLATION

 IVY WRITERS PARIS and THE RED WHEELBARROW’s

evening of FRENCH POETRY IN TRANSLATION

What is it that is drawing us, during this period of increasing border divides, to translate more, and younger poets into American English? What led these particular author-poets to dedicate their translation efforts to these specific French authors? What are the methods and reflections that these translators, and their respective authors, have to share with us about their process and results? 

 To answer these questions, and more, come join us for an evening of reading and discussion about NEW FRENCH TRANSLATIONS INTO AMERICAN ENGLISH:

On the 7^th of OCTOBER 2025 at 19h30
With Translators from the USA and France:
Laura MULLEN
Michelle NOTEBOOM
Carrie CHAPPELL & Amanda MURPHY

Alongside the French authors they translate:
Stéphanie CHAILLOU
Virgine POITRASSON
& Sandra MOUSSAMPES

Plus: get your copies signed by both authors & translators!

AT: THE RED WHEELBARROW BOOKSTORE
11 rue de Médicis, 75006 Paris
M° Odéon/Cluny or  RER Luxembourg
FACEBOOK EVENT INVITE: https://www.facebook.com/events/1568171660838853/

BIOS & Selected Reviewer's notes:

STEPHANIE CHAILLOU TRANSLATED BY LAURA MULLEN:

From an Author's Guild "Spotlight on Laura Mullen" interview: "What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? My lively brilliant surprising and wonderful contemporaries! ... I feel so lucky to be living at the same time as Stéphanie Chaillou, and to be able to bring her brilliance to an English-speaking audience." (source: https://authorsguild.org/member-spotlights/member-spotlight-laura-mullen-2/) 

 

As Bhanu Kapil states about this translation: "In Laura Mullen’s exemplary and fierce translation of Stéphanie Chaillou’s quelque chose se passe (something happens), the body is voided and duplicated in the same instant, a writing I want to keep writing with. Here, a muzzle fuses with a mouth, a headless girl turns her head. A woman and the house she’s living in are indistinguishable, an extended phenotype of girlhood itself. This is flesh architecture rendered in syntax that also does another kind of work, a mode I might describe as inhibitory, a pressure that builds."

 

A MacDowell and Karolyi Foundation Fellow, a Rona Jaffe Award recipient and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Laura Mullen is the author of nine books and has taught at Naropa, Brown, and Columbia College as well as Colorado State University, and Louisiana State University—among other institutions. Her poetry has been anthologized in collections from Norton, Wesleyan, and elsewhere; her first book, The Surface, was a National Poetry Series selection, and her subsequent poetry collections and hybrid-genre works have been published by the University of California Press, FuturePoem, and Otis / Seismicity, among other presses. A CD of Jason Eckardt's setting of her poem "The Distance (This)" is available from Mode records. A collaboration (Verge) with artist John David O'Brien was published in 2017, and her translation of Veronique Pittolo's Hero was published by Black Square Editions in 2018. Solid Objects published her ninth collection, EtC, in 2023. her translation of Stéphanie Chaillou’s first book (something happens) was published by Lavender Ink / Diálogos. She lives in Ventura, California. 

Auteure de poésie et de roman, Stéphanie Chaillou publie, entre 2008 et 2011, trois ouvrages de poésie contemporaine aux éditions Isabelle Sauvage, Quelque chose se passe, Un Léger défaut d’articulation et La Question du centre. Son premier roman, paru chez Alma 2015, L’Homme incertain est adapté au théâtre par Julien Gosselin sous le titre Le Père ; son deuxième roman, Alice ou le choix des armes, fait partie de la sélection « Prix Révélation 2016 » de la SGDL; Le Bruit du monde, qui paraît en 2018, est sélectionné pour le « Prix littéraire des lycéens des Pays-de-la-Loire » et le « Prix littéraire des lycéens de la région Île de France » ; il fait l’objet, en 2021, d’une adaptation radiophonique par l’Atelier fiction de France Culture. Un jour d’été que rien ne distinguait paraît en 2020, Le Goût de la trahison, en 2024. Stéphanie Chaillou écrit également des textes pour la jeunesse. 

VIRGINIE POITRASSON TRANSLATED BY MICHELLE NOTEBOOM:

Platform online Magazine, in their recent roundup of works "Found in Translation" states: "The Unlikeness of Things is the first of Virginie Poitrasson’s collections to be translated into English, making it her debut English collection. Her poetry, deftly translated by Michelle Noteboom, plays to the senses, exploring the almost fantastical while connecting it back to the real and tangible, and eventually, the self. Reality is a threshold which is crossed time and time again; as Poitrasson writes, “What overflows here is not my flesh but my very presence.”"--"Platform: A Creative Playground" at https://www.platform-mag.com/literature/found-in-translation.html  

For a longer review, read: https://www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2025/06/16/whats-new-in-translation-june-2025/ 

Michelle Noteboom grew up in Michigan and holds an MA from Université de Paris III – la Sorbonne Nouvelle. She is the author of Landskips (Estepa Editions, 2021), Roadkill (Corrupt Press, 2013), The Chia Letters (Dusie Kollektiv 2009), Edging (Cracked Slab Books, 2006), and Hors-cage (trans. Frédéric Forte, Éditions de l’attente, 2010). She’s lived in Paris since 1991. She co-founded the bilingual Ivy Writers Series with Jennifer K. Dick. Michelle Noteboom works as a freelance translator, primarily in the audiovisual field, and has also translated French poets Cécile Mainardi, Fred Forte, Stéphane Bouquet, Gwenaelle Stubbe. Tonight she will read and share reflections about her recent translation of Virginie Poitrasson's The Unlikeliness of Things (Litmus Press, 2025)

Née en 1975, Virginie Poitrasson est poète, traductrice et performeuse. Originaire de Lyon, elle a enseigné à l’université Tulane de La Nouvelle-Orléans et à l’université Fordham de New York, et vit désormais à Paris. Parmi ses recueils de poésie figurent, entre autres : Tantôt, tantôt, tantôt (éditions du Seuil), Une position qui est une position qui en est une autre (éditions Lanskine), Le pas-comme-si des choses (éditions de l’Attente), Il faut toujours garder en tête une formule magique (éditions de l’Attente), Demi-valeurs (éditions de l’Attente) et Série ombragée (Propos2 éditions). Elle traduit également pour le public français les poètes Cole Swensen, Mei Mei Berssenbrugge, Marilyn Hacker, Charles Bernstein, Jennifer K. Dick, Michelle Noteboom, Shanxing Wang, Rodrigo Toscano et Laura Elrick. Elle a publié les traductions suivantes : Angle of Yaw de Ben Lerner (Joca Seria), First Figure de Michael Palmer, avec Éric Suchère (José Corti), et Slowly de Lyn Hejinian (Format Américain). Elle a également écrit sur l’œuvre de Pierre Soulages pour la galerie new-yorkaise Levy Gorvy Dayan. The Unlikeness of Things, traduit par Michelle Noteboom, a été publié en juin 2025 par Litmus Press. Elle se produit régulièrement et donne des lectures publiques en France et à l’étranger. Avec le compositeur et flûtiste Joce Mienniel, elle a créé Chambre(s) à Écho(s), un spectacle musical récompensé par la SACD/Beaumarchais.

SANDRA MOUSSEMPES TRANSLATED BY CARRIE CHAPPELL AND AMANDA MURPHY:

For an interview by the translators about this work, read: https://fourwayreview.com/interview-with-amanda-murphy-and-carrie-chappell/ 

Carrie Chappell is a poet, essayist, translator, researcher, and educator. She is the author of Loving Tallulah Bankhead (Paris Heretics, 2022) and Quarantine Daybook (Bottlecap Press, 2021).  Over the last twelve years, Carrie has taught literature, literary translation, creative writing, American Civilization, and rhetoric and composition. Between 2014 and 2021, Carrie was both Assistant Editor and Poetry Editor for Sundog Lit. She began her work as an editor in 2010 as Associate Poetry Editor of Bayou Magazine, where she was later appointed Managing Editor.  Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Carrie holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Creative Writing Workshop at the University of New Orleans. In 2015, she founded Verse of April, the digital anthology of homage to the poets, and now runs its companion reading series, Mnemosynes. She also writes Spiritual Material: Musings from My Second-Hand, Parisian Wardrobe on Substack.  Since 2017, Carrie has been researching and experimenting with translating the poetic novels of Hélène Bessette. She is currently completing her dissertation on Bessette’s oeuvre as a doctoral candidate in French Literature at CY Cergy Paris University. In 2023, Carrie joined the Foreign Language Department at Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (CNAM) as an English instructor. She lives in Paris, France. With Amanda Murphy, she co-translated Cassandra at point-blank range by Sandra Moussempès (Diálogos 2025) which she will be reading from and discussing, alongside Amanda and Sandra, tonight. For more, see https://www.carriechappell.com/

Amanda Murphy, from the USA, is MCF (Associate Professor) of English, Translation Studies and Comparative Literature at Paris III: La Sorbonne Nouvelle where she completed her PhD and now she teaches lexicology, translation and applied translation. She is also a translator (English, French and Spanish) who has worked, for example, as freelance copy editor and writer for American University of Paris. Her academic research focuses on themes such as Multilinguisme, hétérolinguisme, traduction, traductologie, réception, poétique, littérature comparée, littérature du 20e et 21e siècles, avant-gardes, littérature expérimental. With Carrie Chappell, she co-translated Cassandra at point-blank range by Sandra Moussempès (Diálogos 2025) which she will be reading from and discussing, alongside Carrie and Sandra, tonight.

Sandra Moussempès est née à Paris en 1965 où elle vit. Ancienne pensionnaire de la Villa Médicis, elle est l’autrice de 14 livres de poésie depuis 1994, principalement aux éditions Flammarion, parmi lesquels pour les plus récents Sauvons l’ennemie (Flammarion 2025), Cassandra at point-blank range (trad. Amanda Murphy et Carrie Chappell, Lavender Ink/dialogos 2025), Fréquence Mulholland (MF 2023), Cassandre à bout portant (Flammarion 2021, Prix Théophile Gauthier de l’Académie Française). Son travail interroge la potentialité sonore et cinématographique de l’écriture, convoquant la mémoire des voix et le spiritisme via une inquiétante étrangeté. Egalement artiste sonore et vocale, elle fut finaliste du Prix Bernard Heidsieck-Centre Pompidou et a composé 4 albums de poésie sonore qui intègrent son chant Elle lira des poèmes de Cassandra at point-blank range (version bilingue de Cassandre à bout portant) accompagnée de Carrie Chappell et Amanda Murphy.